indyracingleaguefandomcom-20200216-history
2018 Grand Prix of Portland
'''Race report''' The race was off to a ragged start as [[Will Power]] led the field through the first chicane, with many lockups and resulting smoke, as well as four cars going wide and sliding into the run-off area. However, more carnage was at the front of the pack as fifth-place [[Zach Veach]] and sixth-place [[James Hinchcliffe]] rubbed wheels, spinning Hinchcliffe into the coming cars and collecting [[Sebastien Bourdais]], [[Ed Jones]], [[Mario Andretti]], [[Graham Rahal]] and [[Scott Dixon]]. While Bourdais only smacked Hinchcliffe’s car and was able to drive away, other five drivers were left to rest in clouds of dust; with Andretti’s vehicle turned upside down after skating over Hinchcliffe’s bodywork. However, Dixon managed to restart his car and after he got going his machine turned out to have no visible damage, delighting the commentators. Of the other drivers involved, Jones and Andretti were out immediately. Hinchcliffe and Rahal were able to return to racing many laps later; the former finished the race 29 laps down, while the latter ran 4 full laps before withdrawing. Bourdais actually didn’t lose many positions, but his team’s owner, Dale Coyne, decided to top up with fuel under caution, dropping the Frenchman to the tail of the field. Under first full-course yellow of the day, top-five order was Power, [[Alexander Rossi]], [[Ryan-Hunter Reay]], [[Josef Newgarden]] and Veach. As the green flag dropped on lap 8, [[Jordan King]] and [[Jack Harvey]] battled wheel-to-wheel for sixth on the main straight, with the former eventually taking the position from his compatriot. However, yet on the same lap Power suffered a mechanical failure (probably gear control unit shut-off) which slowed him down dramatically and handed the lead to Rossi; with Power only getting back to racing speed when he fell to 12th. Over the next laps, Rossi started pulling away from everybody substantially by setting fastest laps, as he previously did in Long Beach and Mid-Ohio that season. In the midfield, the biggest movers over the following laps were [[Takuma Sato]], [[Simon Pagenaud]] and Dixon, all of them slowly, but constantly passing the preceding cars. [[Pietro Fittipaldi]], Harvey, [[Spencer Pigot]] and [[Carlos Munoz]] all pitted early in an attempt to utilise alternate strategy. Power started his recovery, overtaking [[Tony Kanaan]], [[Matheus Leist]] and [[Santino Ferrucci]], before getting stuck behind [[Gabby Chaves]]. Rossi pulled out 5.5secs on teammate Hunter-Reay before he pitted from the lead on lap 28, emerging in eighth place. Power moved up to fifth place thanks to some more front-runners pitting, including Chaves. Newgarden pitted on lap 31 and emerged to split Pagenaud and Dixon in ninth, but Dixon almost immediately blasted past cold-tyred reigning champion. Veach came in a lap later and despite his floor bearing considerable damage due to first-lap clash with Hinchcliffe, his team decided not to fix it during the stop. King pitted simultaneously and emerged on Veach’s tail, only to be passed by alternate strategy runner Harvey; before Veach was passed by both of them. On lap 33 Hunter-Reay came in for his first stop and took red scuffed tyres, handing the lead back to Power and falling to fourth himself. Most of the field already pitted at this point, but Sato and Dixon were still gambling, now running third and fifth respectively. Newgarden soon passed Dixon, but earlier cut a chicane and he was forced to give the position back, only to perform a proper move on four-time champion quickly after. Power pitted on lap 38 and fell back to 12th after his crew had some problems with right-rear tyre. Rossi was now back leading ahead of Sato, Hunter-Reay, Newgarden and Dixon. Dixon pitted a lap after Power though, and was hit with a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. Sato pitted somewhere between lap 39 and 42, which was left out of the race broadcast. Newgarden was quickly gaining momentum and by lap 43 passed Hunter-Reay for second. Just seconds later, full-course caution was deployed for the second time in the race as Newgarden’s teammate Will Power ran off the track in turn 11 and hit the tyre barrier on turn 12 exit. Power fell a lap down, before stopping with mechanical problem and going further seven laps down, realistically ending his championship chances. Race was resumed on lap 47 and just two laps later Newgarden took the lead from Rossi; as the latter’s teammate Hunter-Reay lost podium position to King. Veach was passed for fifth by Leist, but this didn’t matter for him as on lap 56 he spun off at the same place where Power went off, and fell a lap down. Under third caution of the day, Newgarden, Rossi, King and Leist came into the pits and dropped to the back of the field, with Hunter-Reay leading Sato, Bourdais, Dixon and Pigot on the restart on lap 61. He pitted for the second and final time on lap 71 and emerged seventeenth. Dixon also came in for early second stop, pitting on lap 74 from third and emerging well behind Hunter-Reay. As soon as Dixon emerged from the pits, Ferrucci halted with electrical problem. Fearing a yellow, every remaining lead-lap car pitted, except for [[Max Chilton]] as well as Hunter-Reay and Dixon, who already made their final scheduled stops. During this sequence, Pagenaud and Rossi narrowly avoided a collision. Yellow came out after entire field already left the pitlane, bunching the cars up. Chilton cycled to the lead by staying out with Hunter-Reay third and Dixon fifth (he soon fell to sixth after getting passed by Pigot on the restart). Chilton pitted on lap 85, effectively bringing the race for the win down to Sato and Hunter-Reay as primary-tyred Bourdais was not going to keep up with them. Meanwhile, Rossi continued to make some progress and passed more cars, including Newgarden, but later in the race was unable to pass [[Charlie Kimball]] for seventh. At the front, Hunter-Reay clung onto the rear wing of Sato over the final 20 laps, but without the Japanese driver making a mistake he was unable to make up a pass and Sato took the chequered flag to take his third IndyCar win and first on a permanent road course. =